EU reports

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This report is based on an extensive review of 13 research projects financed by DG Research under Framework Programme 6 that investigated the processes underlying inequality, poverty and exclusion and the effectiveness of strategies designed to promote social cohesion in EU Member States (MS).

The report presents the main findings from their final reports, working papers, as well as from books and academic articles stemming from the projects. In addition the review draws on related work financed by the European Commission, other institutions including the International Labour Organisation, OECD and UN Development Programme and the wider literature.

European research is held to suffer from insufficient and dispersed invetsment. As part of the EU actions to remedy this, the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) introduced two new instruments, 'Networks of Excellence' and 'Integrated Projects'. The aim was, on the one side, to create a substantial and lasting integration of the research activities and , on the other side, to achieve ambitiuous, clearly defined scientific and technological objectives of a European dimension. The European Court of Auditors' special report examined to what extent 'Networks of Excellence' and 'Integrated Projects' had contributed to achieve their objectives, and also to what extent the Commission had effectively managed the new instruments and FP6 had stimulated RTD investment.

The mutual interaction between economic, employment and social policies is at the centre of the Social Protection Committee’s concerns. The agreed common objectives of the European strategy for social protection and social inclusion comprise an overarching goal setting out the need to ensure that adequate, accessible, financially sustainable, adaptable and efficient social protection and social inclusion policies support economic and employment growth.

The present report investigates the extent to which past growth and employment achievements since the launch of the Lisbon strategy have had an impact on social adequacy and social inclusion, as a contribution to the analytical underpinning of the "post-2010 Lisbon Strategy".

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In this Final Report, achievements of NoEs are reviewed without aspiring to perform a full and detailed assessment of individual NoEs. A particular focus is directed towards the issues of ‘critical mass’ and ‘integration’. The expert group discusses the special nature of the ‘intermediate collective research goods’ NoEs are producing as well as the structural aspect of NoEs originally supposed to form a new intra-European layer of durable virtual research organisations. In that context, the group also considers the roles of NoEs for national research institutions, such as universities and research organisations.

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This report addresses the nature, causes and possible remedies for the educational disadvantages experienced by migrant students in EU schools. Migrant students (or synonymously students or pupils/children of migration background or minority students) are disadvantaged in terms of enrolment in type of school, duration of attending school, indicators of achievement, drop-out rates and types of school diploma reached. The topic of education and migration is relevant in the context of European economic development, social cohesion and the stabilization of democratic cultures. The report presents explanations for the given situation and elaborates policies, programmes and measures to improve the situation.

This report is a review of the international evidence about the social benefits of early childhood education and care (ECEC). It provides an analytic overview of the various rationales that drive the development of ECEC services. It summarizes existing knowledge from research and highlights policy lessons and measures that are shown to contribute to successful ECEC policy development and implementation.

This independent expert report is a review of international research evidence on the relationship between gender and education. It focuses especially on the Lisbon objectives and EU benchmarks. It provides a critical, empirically and theoreticallyinformed analysis of how gendered identities relate to educational processes and outcomes. It summarizes existing research and outlines the policy lessons and measures that are shown to contribute to greater equality between women and men, boys and girls in education.

Recent developments in the world and the strong European commitment to a regulating globalisation argue in favour of a forward looking analysis. “The World in 2025” first underlines the major future trends: geopolitical transformations in terms of population, economic development, international trade and poverty. Secondly, it identifies the likely tensions: natural resources (food, energy, water and minerals), migrations or urbanisation. Finally, it defines possible transitional pathways: towards a new production and consumption model, towards new rural-urban dynamics, towards a new gender and intergenerational balance. “Rising Asia and socio-ecological transition” is the explicit sub-title that could be an inspiring source for the future strategy of the European Union.